The SWOOM Farmers Market at Atwood Community Gardens

NEXT Steps is pleased to announce our second year partnership with Debra Robinson and the SWOOM Market Project to launch the SWOOM Farmers Market at Atwood Community Gardens.  (Market opens Thursday, June 7th (4-8pm)!!! Atwood Community Gardens is located at 779 Atwood Street SW, Atlanta, GA 30310. Our growing partners for the 2012 SWOOM Farmers Market will include:

• Batdorf and Bronson Coffee Roasters (Dancing Goat, Downtown Decatur, GA)
• Life Essentials Market (West End Atlanta, GA)
• Mother Clyde Memorial Community Garden (West End Atlanta, GA)
• Patchworks City Farms (Atlanta, GA)
• Atwood Community Gardens & Urban Farm (Atlanta, GA)
• Metro Atlanta Urban Farm (College Park, GA)
• East Lake Community Learning Garden (Decatur, GA)
• The Atlanta Community Food Bank (Atlanta, GA)
• Westview Community Garden (West End Atlanta, GA)
• ….and many, many more!

Our History.  Summer 2011, Ms. Robinson mentored our kids from the Westview Community (a USDA nationally recognized food desert in West End Atlanta) and taught them how to setup and manage the Wholesome Wave and the EBT/SNAP programs at the West End Atlanta Beltline Farmers Market at Space Atlanta Restaurant.  NEXT Steps provided business development training in the form of farm management, marketing, customer service and special event management.  Our growing partner and youth instructor was Master Gardener Sister DeBorah Williams of the Mother Clyde Memorial Community Garden — a staple in the Historic West End District and founder of the West End Atlanta Beltline Market.

Our Upcoming  Activities & Events.  One of the first promotions we will host at Atwood Community Gardens is the 2012 Youth Culinary Tour (click link to download flyer).  It is a Chef mentoring promotion for young culinary artists (18 &under ) to teach their peers how to cook fresh,  naturally grown produce at local urban gardens and farms in the Metro Atlanta area. Through a partnership with the Hands On Atlanta Civic Leadership Program,  The 2012 Youth Culinary Tour will occur every 3rd Thursday, Friday and Saturday at Atwood Community Gardens, Truly Living Well Urban Agriculture Center and the East Lake Community Learning Garden from 4-8pm.

Our second activity at Atwood Community Gardens will be the Herb & Farm Summer Internship Program in partnership with the Mayor’s Youth Program, the Harland Boys & Girls Club and the Break Away Alternative Spring Break Program with Georgia State, Georgia Tech and Emory University.  This 8 week S.T.E.M.-based summer training program will teach middle and high school schools the transferable business development and management skills that come from managing and operating a farm and outdoor event facility. Our university partners will provide college mentors to work with these kids during the month of June to demonstrate how farm tasks are directly related to career pathways in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (S.T.E.M.).

Lastly, in a partnership with FILM Atlanta, we will be creating a two-year documentary project about the impact SWOOM and NEXT Steps will have on the Westview Community Food Desert.  We want to use this medium to continue our mission to create a culture of health in food desert communities throughout Metro Atlanta through public awareness promotions and educational training sessions that address issues of health, the food movement and culture.

For More Information. Click the links to learn more about SWOOM Atlanta and the NEXT Steps Youth Entrepreneur Program.

Michael Pollan's Tweet about The Cooking Gene

Reblogged from Afroculinaria:

In the past few weeks since author Nancie McDermott gave her outrageously wonderful donaton to The Cooking Gene, and since my friend Sandor Katz started talking it up, there have been a lot of good connections flowing around The Cooking Gene.  And yes as always–here is the link:  http://www.indiegogo.com/The-Cooking-Gene-Project-The-Southern-Discomfort-Tour

To those who are seeing this site for the first time, The Cooking Gene is my project going to the Deep South to find my ancestors and the places they lived while telling the story of slavery through food and telling the story of the African American contribution to American and Southern food through my family history. 

Read more… 934 more words

I simply find this project to be as fascinating as Michael's stories about his geneology. I had the pleasure of talking with him two weeks ago and enjoyed listening to the high-spirited passion that leaped through the phone. Like Michael, my goal is to celebrate the key role food plays during rituals that depict the symbolic meanings of triumph, perseverance, courage, community, diversity and love. The Cooking Gene project helps to educate me in understanding how food universally and magically transforms differences into unifying bonds amongst strangers. Please take a moment to read about Michael's most recent successes then contribute (a little or a lot) to The Cooking Gene Project: Southern Discomfort Culinary Tour. Your support goes further to help NEXT Steps launch our first Youth Culinary Tour this summer.

The Cooking Gene And Its “Southern Discomfort Tour” by Michael W. Twitty

An Open Letter & Invitation

Hello Friends in Atlanta and the State of Georgia,

My name is Michael W. Twitty.  I am an African American culinary historian and living history interpreter and Jewish educator from Washington D.C.  I am a food blogger and food writer whose personal mission is telling the story of the African/African American contribution to Southern and American food and the story and legacy of food in enslavement.   I believe our contemporary best practices can be informed by this history as we pursue a path of better eating, community and personal gardening and homesteading, environmental sustainability and racial reconciliation and healing as well as the passing on of our tradition to our children.  Dana felt that it would be great if I could spell out our needs to make this project happen.

In collaboration with friends I decided that this was the time to hit the road to tell that story while digging up information on my own family’s history.  We are not nameless “slaves” in nameless textbooks..we are a people who built America and helped create and forge the contours of American cooking.  This project, The Cooking Gene, and its “Southern Discomfort Tour” is a wide reaching effort to talk to our young people, put the focus on African American food producers, farmers and fishermen, and utilize the wisdom of our elders in telling the story of African Americans through food from Africa to America and from enslavement to freedom.  I wanted to do this project while my mother and father and grandfather were alive to see it despite health issues from the past few years.  This project means the world to me–but it is not about me–this is about my Ancestors, OUR Ancestors, our children and those to come.  This is an investment in the African American cultural and culinary narrative.

Reaching out is not easy.  We are optimistic but overwhelmed. We are blogging, coordinating a trip, and trying to make our calendar sync for the next two months and the remainder of the year.  While on the tour we will be doing workshops, living history sites, we will pick cotton work tobacco, cook big house meals, show the origins of barbecue, cook for the quarters, interview elders, provide an outlet for Black farmers to discuss their businesses and bring people together across lines of race throughout the South.  We need you.

At this point we need about 280 donors with 18 bucks to push this project to success.  We have seen an enormous outpouring of good will from multiple sources but we want communities to invest in this project.  I hope there are 280 people out there who have the 18 bucks we need to make this project happen. We are crowdfunding through Indiegogo to make this happen and all links have been included at the bottom of this email.  We have higher donations slots and all slots have perks so its not something for nothing…we believe in reciprocity as much as the next guy.  But point blank—we love you and we need you.  The most important thing at this point is getting the word out and people who are willing to give up four days of Starbucks to make Black history possible.  There are only 25 days remaining to our campaign.

About 200 years ago my ancestors were enslaved in Georgia among other Southern States including Virginia, North and South Carolina, Alabama and Tennessee.  Through the lens of my family history, through contemporary food justice projects, through plantation museums and sites of culinary memory and through living legends we want to bring this story to the forefront.  In order to understand where we are going we have to know where we have been.  This is our chance. I want Atlanta and the people of Georgia’s help.  I humbly submit to you that without your help this project cannot happen.  We cannot go on the road for less than our goal.  We have made our promise to Dana that we will be there for her non profit — The NEXT Steps Youth Entrepreneur Program — every step of the way to give back–but we need your help to get there.  Michael Eric Dyson’s show, Ebony, the Chicago Tribune, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the Jewish Forward and other publications are saying this is a project to watch.  Come join us in a win for our children, our Ancestors and ourselves.

Our needs in Georgia:

• we intend to work with the NEXT Steps Youth Entrepreneur Program as one of our seven official community service projects
• we may need places to stay if possible in Atlanta, Athens, Columbus and Savannah
• we are interested in both African American chefs and those chefs who are Farm to Table, and those who rely in part on community gardens etc. for restaurant produce, and those chefs who do updated Southern classics with an African American influence–black eyed peas, okra, fried chicken, bbq, sweet potatoes etc.
• We are interested in community organizations and food justice organizations in Atlanta and those that promote racial reconciliation and healing
• we are interested in synagogues that incorporate Soul Food in their culinary identity, and kosher Southern restaurants
• We are interested in urban farming and organic farms esp those run by people of color or in minority communities

Thank you in advance!

G-d Bless

Michael W. Twitty

Akiba Ben Avraham

240-330-9291

Koshersoul@gmail.com

Thecookinggene@gmail.com

Blogs: www.thecookinggene.com, www.afroculinaria.com

Twitter: @Koshersoul

Facebook: Michael W. Twitty (fan page)

Indiegogo Link:   http://www.indiegogo.com/The-Cooking-Gene-Project-The-Southern-Discomfort-Tour

NEXT Steps Presents It’s 2012 Youth Culinary Tour

UPDATE 04.24.2012: In a partnership with Hands On Atlanta’s Civic Leadership Program, NEXT Steps will be hosting its first Youth Culinary Tour.  The total cost of the tour is estimated at $2,900 to ensure our youth culinary artists have sufficient display materials and cooking ingredients.  NEXT Steps just began receiving monthly donations of $140 from the 2011 Combined Federal Campaign (CFC) — whose mission is to promote and support philanthropy through a program that is employee focused, cost-efficient, and effective in providing all federal employees the opportunity to improve the quality of life for all.  We ask that members of the general public please help match their donation by contributing $1, $5 or $10 (or more) to our PayPal account: donations@nextstepsyep.org. We are well on our way to making this an extremely successful and exciting event.

For more information, please do not hesitate to call NEXT Steps YEP at 678.570.0398 or email us at events@nextstepsyep.org.

NEXT Steps YEP PayPal donations accepted at donations@nextstepsyep.org
Download 2012 Young Chef Tour Flyer

NEXT Steps Becomes a Hands On Atlanta Civic Leadership Program Partner

As a non-profit partner, NEXT Steps has secured two Hands On Atlanta Civic Leadership Program volunteers to support our  Monthly Community Clean-Ups at Atwood Community Gardens (1st & 2nd Saturdays; 9a-12n) and our 2012 Young Chef Tour that will be hosted at Atwood Community Gardens, Truly Living Well (Old Fourth Ward location) and East Lake Community Learning Garden (Decatur). Please support these future entrepreneurs by becoming a Hands On Atlanta volunteer for NEXT Steps Youth Entrepreneur Programs. Donations to NEXT Steps can be made to our PayPal account: donations@nextstepsyep.org.

We still have slots available for your young culinary artist.  Please review the participation requirements to determine if your child/ren would like to be featured in the 2012 Youth Culinary Tour (May-Nov 2012).

NEXT Steps YEP Receives the GuideStar Exchange Seal

For Immediate Release

Atlanta, GA –The NEXT Steps Youth Entrepreneur Program (NSYEP) received the GuideStar Exchange Seal, a leading symbol of transparency and accountability provided by GuideStar USA, Inc., the premier source of nonprofit information. The Seal demonstrates to NEXT Step‘s vast support-base our deep commitment to nonprofit transparency and accountability. See NSYEP’s Guidestar Profile

“We have worked hard to showcase our progress toward our mission, and our long-held belief in being transparent about our work, to our constituents,” said SPOKESPERSON. “As a GuideStar Exchange member, we use their platform to share a wealth of up-to-date information about our work to our supporters and GuideStar’s immense online audience of nonprofits, grantmakers, individual donors, and the media.”

In order to be awarded the GuideStar Exchange Seal, NEXT Steps had to fill out every required field of our nonprofit report page on www.guidestar.org, including our annual report, photos, and latest news articles, etc.

“I encourage you to check out our profile on GuideStar to see what we’re all about,” added Dana Jewel Harris, Executive Director of NSYEP. “We are engaged in exciting initiatives like the 2012 Young Chef Tour and our 3rd Annual 2012 H&F Summer Training Program.  Partnerships with Hands On Atlanta’s Civic Leadership Program and the Mayor’s Youth Program have helped make our urban agriculture, S.T.EM. training and youth entrepreneur programming sustainable and successful.  We are thrilled to have another platform for communicating our advancement and progress.”

About the GuideStar Exchange

The GuideStar Exchange is an initiative designed to connect nonprofits with current and potential supporters. With millions of people coming to GuideStar to learn more about nonprofit organizations, the GuideStar Exchange allows nonprofits to share a wealth of up-to-date information with GuideStar’s many audiences. Becoming a GuideStar Exchange member is free of charge. To join, organizations need to update their report pages, completing all required fields for membership. The GuideStar Exchange Seal, acknowledged as a symbol of transparency in the nonprofit sector, is displayed on all Exchange members’ report pages.

To learn more about the NEXT Steps Youth Entrepreneur Program, please visit us at
Website: www.nextstepsyep.org
Facebook: NSYEP Atl
Twitter: @nextstepsyep
Wordpress: nextstepsyep.wordpress.com

###

News Contact:  Dana Jewel Harris | djharris@nextstepsyep.org

NEXT Steps Recognized As 2012 Be The Change Partner | Sevananda Natural Foods Market

2012 Be The Change Partners

January – Furniture Bank
February – Lives IN Transition
March – LLF
April – WRFG Radio
May – Lake Clair Land Trust
June – African Community Centers
July – NGAC
August – NEXT Steps YEP
September – Living Relative
October – National Black Men’s Health Network
November – Grand Care
December – DeKalb PTA

What is Be The Change Program?
Sevananda Natural Foods Market’s Be The Change Program is our contribution to a healthier Atlanta. Each time you go through the register at Sevananda, you have the opportunity to contribute to a local non-profit by either donating a specific dollar amount or rounding your purchase up to the nearest dollar. By donating your spare change, you are contributing to a better Atlanta.

How does it work?
A committee composed of members of our co-op select twelve community nonprofit organizations from those who apply each year. These twelve organizations are assigned one month each in the upcoming calendar year. During the assigned month, shoppers at Sevananda contribute to the organization at the register. BTC Partners also receive 1% of Sevananda sales on the fourth Saturday of their partnership month.

How does the Be The Change Program fulfill Sevananda Natural Food Market’s mission?
It enables Sevananda to empower the community through a financial donation to improve its health and wellbeing.

Be The Change Program History
Be The Change Program began as the Community Change is a program started by Sevananda Natural Foods Market in 1997 in order to make contributions to locally Based non-profit organizations. Since 2005, Sevananda Natural Foods Market has raised a total of approximately $5000 for the Be The Change Program.

Donate To NEXT Steps
Donors can make a donation using our PayPal Account: donations@nextstepsyep.org.

I'm Dreaming of an .....African American....Passover

Reblogged from Afroculinaria:

I am Reform in my politics, Conservative in my observance, Orthodox by conversion, but I am straight up, “Hasid,” on Passover.  (In the sense of piousness of course

There is no Jewish holiday I love more than Passover.  For the new readers, I am Jewish and no holiday to me is more important.  I may love dancing on Simchas/t/th Torah when we celebrate the Torah scrolls and I may love the cheefulness of Sukkos/t/th but nothing pulls more at my heart than the songs and traditions and recipes and rituals of the world’s oldest Emancipation ritual. 

Read more… 1,475 more words

Who knew I was having the same dream as Michael W. Twitty . . . an African American Passover!!!

It’s Official!!! Atlanta Chosen To Host Outdoor Nation 2012 Summit Again

It’s official – the search is on for outdoor activists to participate in the Outdoor Nation 2012 Summits!

If you’re an outdoor activist between the ages of 16 – 28, you should consider participating in one of the  Outdoor Nation Summits. Each two-day summit will bring together leaders from your generation to identify important outdoor issues, brainstorm strategies to overcome barriers and commit to taking action together. You’ll receive training from top experts, on topics like community organizing, media relations and fundraising. Best of all, Outdoor Nation will fund the top ideas – investing up to $100,000 in your on-the-ground projects. You’ll get to meet new friends and camp under the stars…did we mention it’s free? Read on for more info:

If you have any questions, please contact Ivan Levin, Director of Outdoor Nation, at ilevin@outdoorfoundation.org.

GTFO,
Outdoor Nation

LocalHarvest Recognizes Atwood Community Gardens & Urban Farm

Local Harvest website added Atwood Community Gardens to their roster of over 700+ farms and gardens across the U.S.  Local Harvest believes that the best organic food is what’s grown closest to you. Visitors can use their website to find farmers’ markets, family farms, and other sources of sustainably grown food in their area, where they can buy produce, grass-fed meats, and many other goodies.

We encourage you to support this great web site by shopping in their catalog for things you can’t find locally!

Atwood Community Gardens & Urban Farm – LocalHarvest.